Each business that developed alongside the web has benefited from digital advertising and marketing, together with right now’s fight sports activities. Whereas the WWE loved lots of mainstream success within the ‘90s, extra fierce fight sports activities like MMA had been nonetheless of their infancy. Now the UFC is a powerhouse business, and it owes lots of it to their digital advertising and marketing technique.
Fight Sports activities on the Web
Any MMA fan is aware of that the UFC began out of a half-filled sports activities enviornment, broadcast to lower than 100,000 folks. Since then, the championship has turn into the most important fight sports activities promotion on this planet with $11.3 billion recorded income for 2023. It owes lots of its 2010s success to the streaming increase, the place stay fights turned extremely popular on-line.
Evidently, the web leveled up just about each business it got here into contact with. That features the markets surrounding fight sports activities, which turned extra simply accessible via web sites and downloadable apps. For a contemporary instance, take a look at the McGregor vs Chandler betting market forward of UFC 303 the place McGregor is the favourite to win with -110 odds. For probably the most engaged followers, betting on MMA matchups has turn into a method to present their assist for his or her favourite fighters. Beside entry to fights and betting markets, the web additionally paved the best way for viral advertising and marketing. Each knockout punch, spinning kick, and upset submission might be simply documented and posted on-line by the UFC’s official accounts on YouTube and different social media.
It’s value mentioning that the UFC was saved by one thing else earlier than the web got here alongside. In 2005, the UFC had been in dire straits once they determined to launch their The Final Fighter actuality collection. It was a runaway success that bought followers invested within the athletes behind the fights, culminating in Forrest Griffin’s showdown in opposition to Stephan Bonnar. The present imbued MMA with the character drama beforehand displayed by the WWE, besides the fights had been actual and no outcomes had been pre-determined.
Fighters Are Influencers
Influencers are one of many most important pillars of digital advertising and marketing. They’ll present authenticity in on-line landscapes, the place it may be briefly provide. They’ll additionally deliver a services or products to audiences who wouldn’t usually uncover them. Within the fight sports activities ecosystem, fighters comfortably settled into an influencer place with out even realizing it.
Most savvy fighters have private social media accounts these days, used to air their ideas about a wide range of matters. Naturally, they discuss lots of inside baseball and hype up their upcoming struggle appearances. By doing this, they’re creating a singular dynamic not seen anyplace else in influencer advertising and marketing. They aren’t paid influencers promoting a product, they’re fighters with massive egos attempting to promote themselves. They receives a commission by displaying up and (hopefully) profitable, however they typically can’t assist speaking trash or commenting on different business occasions, which solely provides to the excitement on-line.
They’re additionally very pure. Each fighter’s social media presence differs, in accordance with their ego and the bragging rights they’ve earned via their win/loss document. Not each fighter can or desires to offer the commentary discovered on Jon Jones’ X feed, for instance. It has been confirmed that the UFC does push big-name fighters to ascertain a presence on-line, although they’ve lots of freedom and retain private use of the account. Demetrious Johnson defined how this works and the way it appears to have paid dividends right now.
In you guys opinion, what was probably the most boring struggle on the cardboard? Simply attempting to see if everybody’s on the identical web page.
— BONY (@JonnyBones) June 2, 2024
None of this engagement was doable earlier than social media and influencer advertising and marketing turned widespread. The closest comparability is the WWE, who aired fastidiously scripted storylines that captured broadcast audiences through the Perspective Period. Now, fighters placed on a present with out scripting, including an additional layer of unpredictability and controversy to the combination. Each will be nice for attracting, and preserving, an viewers.